HOW LONG?

    

     My God, how long I have been working on the following realization and still chipping away at the rough edges... If I were to die today or drop this body I would be grateful to have realized this one insight that conquers the mind's propensity to criticize others, which begins with finding fault with one's own self. 

     Everyone has some fault, blind-spot or deficiency in this world, (including the best gurus) no matter how much we put them on a pedestal in a glass case, however, everyone is serving according to their personal capacity. Acknowledging, appreciating the service they are doing and neglecting the faults that the mind generally loves to dwell on causing us and others to feel miserable, is the key to personal blissful happiness. It is the cause of others being able to receive our personal association and contributions. It is an attribute of real humility. One naturally is transformed into a genuine encouraging friend and peacemaker to all in this world still very much of a mentality divided against itself. 

unknown author

PLATO'S CAVE

The following exchange took place as a discussion relating to 

a previous post Reflection of a reflection

Deepak Srivastava Hare Krishna Mata ji, Profound philosophy in so few words. Merry-go-round was my favorite amusement ride as a child. It was fun sitting on the monkey or the bird or the giraffe. However I never realized that the merry-go-round reflects the numerous cycles of birth and death that we go through till the time we get back to the Godhead.
Meena Devi Dasi Plato wrote about how people were simply seeing shadows of images in his analogy of the cave. People have been fascinated by Plato's analogy of the cave and speculated about it's meaning for centuries. So now we can see from the carousel what Plato was trying to describe. Video Plato's Cave Analogy 
Deepak Srivastava Hare Krishna Mata ji, The link has confused the hell out of me. I thought that your poem is trying to convey the many forms that we go through till the time we attain liberation. My interpretation seems wrong.  Could you, at your convenience, elaborate on points 8 to 11 of the link with some more examples.
Meena Devi Dasi A poem may not be easily deciphered. Sometimes there are several layers. There is a dream like quality to them. They defy the grammatical rules of prose and have their own grammar. What I was trying to express is something like this: The carousel reflects the material situation of life of after life birth after birth in the material world. The material world itself is also a reflection of the spiritual world. So it is like a reflection (the carousel) of a reflection (the material world) of the actual eternal world. Hope that helps. Hare Krishna
Meena Devi Dasi Plato's cave also has that reflection of a reflection theme. As far as his realizations took him he could perceive that people were enamored of things with no real substance, Shadows on the wall. But even the objects that were casting the shadows had no real substance. They were being cast by fire light. It wasn't until one of the people was freed and could actually experience the sunlight that the whole situation could be seen as it is. Hare Krishna. There is an added twist to Plato's analogy, when the person who was freed and enlightened tried to give the good news to those that were still bound they rejected him, probably as being crazy. Hare Krishna...

ALL AROUND WAS DARK

  

   
     After dark last night I had to go to the back of the house to adjust something. There is a small Tulsi garden there. It is southern Florida and very warm year round so the climate is nice for Tulsi. The sky was overcast and there had been rain off and on all day and now also into the night. 
     To my amazement Tulsi was glowing. All around was very dark, but there was a beautiful soft yellow-green light emanating from Her. She seemed to shimmer. Each leaf and flower was distinctly visible. 
     There are several other plants all around, papayas, a banana grove, hedges, bougainvilleas, etc. But they were all dark, hardly even visible in the darkness. 
     Breathtaking. 

REFLECTION OF A REFLECTION

The carousel

Round and round

Life after life

Sometimes a bird

Sometimes a dog

Sometimes a giraffe

Sometimes an insect

A fun ride?

We do not see

The carousel

A reflection of our reality

Our reality a reflection of

True reality,

Krishna's reality. 

SIMPLE FOR THE SIMPLE

     Last night I had to opportunity to read from Chaitanya Bhagavata by Vrndavana das Thakur. Madhya Khanda Chapter 13, the glories of Nityananda prabhu. Sri Krishna Chaitanya ordered Nityananda prabhu and Haridas to go door to door in Nadiya with a very simple instruction for everyone, "Go to every home with this request, 'Please chant Krishna's name, worship Krishna, and teach others about Krishna.' Don't tell them anything else. Make them chant. At the end of the day come back and tell Me what has happened." (Texts: 9,10)
     The people responded in different ways. Some were happy to hear this and fully agreed to do it. Others became annoyed and hurled abuse and threats at Nityananda and Haridas. Nityananda and Haridas thought it great fun to follow this order of Lord Chaitanya. People said things like, "Why would religious people act like that? If they come again I will take them to the king's court."(Text 28) And some even threatened, "Kill them! Kill them!"(Text 26)
Hearing words like this again and again, Nityananda and Haridasa laughed. Because of the power of Lord Chaitanya's order, they did not become afraid. (text 29) They would return to Lord Chaitanya and tell him of the day's activities. 

    There is a neighbor here who stops to talk sometimes. The conversation this morning was very blissful. The usual, "How are you? How's your health  yada, yada..." then I just introduced Krishna out of the blue. Just said loud and clear, "Hare Krishna" like they were supposed to know what that was.       
     They immediately responded, "Hare Krishna?" Loud and clear. 
     I realized these are the pastimes of the Lord in His manifestation as the Holy Name. 
     The neighbor asked, "So, what is that?" 
     I told them," Krishna is the Personality of Godhead." 
     Of course there was resistance at this point. They were sure to tell me they were Jewish but if I wanted to worship Krishna that was my business. And then lectured me on their religious values. But they couldn't stop saying Krishna. They were resisting Krishna but Krishna was winning. They must have denied the existence of Krishna while chanting His Holy Name at least 50 times in the ten minutes we spent together. 
     I realized what a wonderful conversation that had been. Every other word was Krishna. 
     Remembering what I had read the night before about the glorious pastimes of Nityananda prabhu and Haridas I marveled at the extra ordinary mercy of Lord Chaitanya's sankirtana movement. I will be doing this every chance I get. Simply introducing Krishna into conversations. If they are inimical that is what chanting Hare Krishna is all about, defeating nirvisesa (voidism) sunyavadi (impersonalism). Krishna awards liberation even to the really dangerous demons so what to speak of the innocent and the ignorant. 
     Philosophy is there. And it is entirely relishable by the devotees. But we see from this pastime in Chaitanya Bhagavata that devotional service to the instructions of Lord Chaitanya and the Holy Name of Krishna is very simple and very sublime.

THE MIRACLE OF LITTLE WAYS

Krishna Srivatsa Subha Visalam  Dear Meena Devi Dasi, I can feel the excitement with which you shared this incident. (BREAKING THE WALL OF SILENCE) Its amazing..the little ways through which we can get connected to Krishna...Krishna is everywhere... Hare Krishna... 
Meena Devi Dasi Thank you Krishna Srivatsa Subha Visalam prabhu. It is true. Small or little has no bearing in devotional service. Devotion is not measured in quantity. Devotion is measured in quality. Krishna is realized through devotion only. Not by work, nor penance, nor austerity, nor knowledge... none of these practices in and of themselves will make the connection to Krishna. When they are enhanced by devotional attitude then the Lord may be pleased to reveal something of Himself. The devotional energy of the Lord is completely different from the material energy of the Lord. Even the tiniest exposure to the devotional energy is so powerful that a person can become completely transformed. In a sense it can be compared to poison... a tiny drop of poison can kill the body. So a tiny drop of devotional energy can kill the material illusion.

THE MISSING LINK

Ashok Kumar  "Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be." It is simply because the the existence "I' or Source is eternal, timeless and immeasurable.Everything out there is a manifestation of this eternal principle. How can the principle die? The verse does not apply to the individual souls. This is the purport of the verse. Thank you 

Meena Devi Dasi  Krishna is quite explicit. He says individual souls do not die. 

Deepak Srivastava  Very true Mataji. Individual souls are eternal due to their eternal relationship with the eternal 'I' referred to in the verse.

Madhusudan Attaluri  Pranaam Mataji. This becomes the beginning sloka of Gita. Bhagwan is Great. In a single couplet He embedded the entire route map of Karma and Atma science. All that follows is an elaboration of the same. Sometimes I doubt whether the Gita is Bhagawan's words or Srila Vyasa Bhagawan's writing. 

Ananthakrishnan Krishnan  So why to worry and become sad. Do our karmas without any attachment or expectation. All are for Krishna arpanam.

Meena Devi Dasi That's the idea. Easier said than done for most of us. Without actually developing love and appreciation for the Personality of Godhead by hearing about Him from Pure devotional sources and also serving Him. Hearing submissively is devotional service but there are many processes of devotional service, praying, chanting, worshiping, and so on.., simply realizing our eternal nature is incomplete. We must be able to repose our loving propensity in Krishna otherwise we will again become attracted to something other than Krishna Himself, which is His illusory energy. Hearing from pure devotional sources is the missing link.